From the European troubadours of the 16 Century to the early settlers of Appalachia, people have been singing songs about desperate men, senseless violence, murders and executions, damsels in distress, hard traveling, whiskey, gambling, and lost loves. Centuries have past, but we sing about the same things, and sometimes we sing the same songs.
Borrowing from the past to write songs is part of the folk tradition. In this podcast you can see this folk tradition at work -- from the country or "Americana" roots music to the music we play -- and the music that our friends play. I include some live tracks by the David Nelson Band, the Rowans, and the Flying Other Brothers with special guests. These are tracks you probably haven't heard before.
| Borrowing from the past to write songs is part of the folk tradition. |
The true folk music of America, a.k.a. Americana, are the songs collected by anthologists such as John and Alan Lomax and Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly), and recorded by Harry Smith for the Folkways label (published by the Smithsonian Institute). Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music was widely heard by musicians and inspired the American urban and rural folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. "The Anthology was our bible," 1950s folk revival artist Dave Van Ronk wrote in 1991. The first track is from Harry Smith's collection, and the second track demonstrates this folk tradition with an original derivative tune by Robert Hunter and David Nelson, and performed often by the David Nelson Band.
1. "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" (Traditional, arranged by A.P. Carter). Performed by the Carter Family, May 10, 1928. Source: Smithsonian Anthology of Folk Music, produced by Harry Smith (). "John Hardy was a Desperate Man" by the Carter Family, from Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian Folkways SFW40090 1997, provided courtesy of Recordings. Copyright (c) 1997. Used by permission.
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The Carter Family band from Maces Spring, Virginia consisted of A.P. (Alvin Pleasant Delaney) Carter (1891-1960), Maybelle Carter (1909-1978), and Sara Carter (1898-1979). The Carter Family is considered to be one of the most important and influential music groups in the history of American music. The group, with various family members involved (including June Carter, who later married Johnny Cash), has been active for over 70 years. The Carter's songs and distintive style of singing and guitar accompanyment strongly influenced later musicians, especially Woody Guthrie, The New Lost City Ramblers, and Joan Baez. Most of the lead vocals were done by Sara; Maybelle played guitar and autoharp.
A.P. Carter collected folk songs from Appalachia and arranged them in the Carter Family's style. He was one of the first musicians to copyright these traditional arrangements in his own name and prepared song folios for sale at their shows. The Carter's music was a mixture of sacred and secular songs, and many of their songs have become country, old-time, and bluegrass standards. A.P. Carter acknowledged that many of the songs he collected were taught to him by a black singer and guitarist from North Carolina named Leslie Riddle. During the 1920s Riddle performed many songs that were of Irish and Scottish origin.
| John Hardy supposedly killed a man in a crap game over a 25-cent gambling debt. |
The song known as "John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man" is a genuine folk ballad that Maybelle Carter had known all of her life, also known as "John Harty". Though early folk collectors sometimes confused John Hardy with John Henry, they were in fact two different men, with two different legends. John Hardy was a West Virginia outlaw who was hanged in 1894; the Carters' reference to the "Keystone Bridge" refers to the town in McDowell County, West Virginia, not far from where Hardy worked and, supposedly, killed a man in a crap game over a 25-cent gambling debt. During the early days of the century, dozens of versions of the Hardy ballad circulated, but after the Carter recording, everyone from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan used this version.
Lyrics:
|
John
Hardy, he was a desp'rate little man, John
Hardy, he got to the Keystone Bridge, He
sent for his poppy and his mommy, too, John
Hardy, he had a pretty little girl, |
John
Hardy, he had another little girl, I been
to the East and I been to the West, John
Hardy walked out on his scaffold high, |
2. "John Hardy's Wedding" (Robert Hunter, David Nelson). Performed by the at May Daze, Strasburg, CO, 5/27/2005. Featuring David Nelson (guitar), Barry Sless (guitar), Billy Laymon (bass), Charlie Crane (drums), Mookie Siegel (keyboards).
This song is an update on "John Hardy" with new lyrics by and music by David Nelson. In his lyrics, Hunter relocated John Hardy to Richmond, Virginia, and added a shotgun wedding to the story. The melody is a more bluesy version of the original Carter Family melody.
| "I
always knew you'd be a man of your word But I brought this shotgun just in case." -- From "John Hardy's Wedding" (Nelson/Hunter). |
Lyrics:
|
John
Hardy, he was a desperate boy He
carried a razor in his portmanteau You'd
have thought that the wind was a cousin to him He
had a little sweetheart named Claudia Dare |
Ten
years later, almost to the day And
along in tow was the justice of the peace "Well
that's real good of you," she said Well
baby, we're gonna pawn that gun
|
3. "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad" (Traditional, adapted by Woody Guthrie and Lee Hays), performed by Woody Guthrie with Sonny Terry on harmonica and Cisco Houston on guitar. Source: . "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" by Woody Guthrie, from This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1, Smithsonian Folkways SFW40100 1997, provided courtesy of Recordings. Copyright (c) 1997. Used by permission.
, a.k.a. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie and The People's Troubadour, wrote the soundtrack for America in the 1930s and 1940s. He is considered the father of the urban folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s. Popular and folk musicians continue to draw inspiration from Guthrie, re-interpreting and re-invigorating his songs for new audiences, and carrying the tradition of the harmonica and guitar-playing singer/songwriter into the future. This traditional country blues song was a favorite of Dust Bowl refugees headed for California, and even appears in the film version of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Guthrie also recorded another version of this song as "Blowing Down that Old Dusty Road" with slightly different lyrics. But I have always loved this version, as much for 's whoops and harmonica licks (which I memorized) as for Woody's sardonic delivery. Born in 1911 or 1912 and blind in one eye since age five, Sonny played music on street corners until teaming up with Blind Boy Fuller making his first record in 1937. He later formed a folk-blues partnership with Brownie McGhee and recorded with Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Rev. Gary Davis.
|
"I'm
a-lookin' for a job at honest pay, Lord, Lord, |
Lyrics ("Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad"):
|
Goin'
down this road feelin' bad. I'm
goin' where the water tastes like wine. It
takes a ten-dollar shoe to fit my feet, Your
a-two-dollar shoe hurts my feet, I ain't
a-gonna be treated this way, |
Extra lyrics: Goin'
where the climate fits my clothes. Down
in the jail-house on my knees... Goin'
but I ain't comin' back.. Goin'
where the chilly winds don't blow. |
Lyrics ("Blowing Down that Old Dusty Road"):
|
I'm
blowin' down this old dusty road, I'm
a-goin' where the water taste like wine, I'm
a-goin' where the dust storms never blow, They
say I'm a dust bowl refugee, I'm
a-lookin' for a job at honest pay,
|
My
children need three square meals a day, It
takes a ten-dollar shoe to fit my feet, Your
a-two-dollar shoe hurts my feet, I'm
a-goin' down this old dusty road, Copyright © 1960 (renewed) by TRO-Hollis Music, Inc. |
4. "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Guthrie, Hays). Performed by the at the 12 Galaxies club in S.F., CA, on April 17, 2005. Featuring Bill Bennett (bass), TBone Tony Bove (harmonica, vocals), Bert Keely (guitar), Ann McNamee (vocals, percussion), Roger McNamee (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Sanchez (drums), Pete Sears (keyboards), Barry Sless (pedal steel guitar), and special guest David Nelson (guitar, vocals).
Many artists covered this song, but you probably recall the Grateful Dead's live version which appeared on (a.k.a. Skullfuck), as part of the "Not Fade Away-Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad" suite that ends the album. This is the version that influences the Flying Other Brothers version.
Note that Jerry Garcia once said he learned the songfrom , who covered it earlier as Delaney and Bonnie on the album . Garcia and Bramlett can be seen jamming on the tune, with Janis Joplin singing along with Bramlett, in the movie (the song opens the Web site as well).
5. "Slidin' Delta" (Mississippi John Hurt). Performed by the at the Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville, CA on 7/3/05. Featuring David Nelson (guitar), Barry Sless (pedal steel guitar), Pete Sears (bass), Charlie Crane (drums), Mookie Siegel (keyboards), and TBone Tony Bove (harmonica).
Country music and the blues come together in the rich, fertile land of the Mississippi Delta. If you trace back the origins of most blues songs and stylings, you find the country blues of Robert Johnson, Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and individual styles like . Rock music derives its raw spirit of rebellion and mojo from the country blues sound, which gave birth to the Chicago blues, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll.
Mississippi
John Hurt first recorded in 1928 for the Okeh label, but disappeared from
the music business for about 35 years, tilling fields and playing in the
old style. He was rediscovered in 1963 at the height of the urban folk
revival and achieved national recognition. He had a few recording sessions,
and played a good number of festivals, including the now famous Newport
Folk Festival in 1964, at age 72. Self-taught, Hurt developed a distinctive
three-finger style and a ragtime approach to his repertoire.
6. "Hesitation Blues" (Traditional, arranged by Jorma Kaukonen). Performed by the Flying Other Brothers with lots of special guests at the Last Day Saloon in S.F., CA, on 9/11/2000. Featuring Bill Bennett (bass), TBone Tony Bove (harmonica), Jack Casady (bass), Jorma Kaukonen (guitar), Bert Keely (guitar), Corinne Marcus (percussion), Larry Marcus (drums), Ann McNamee (percussion), Roger McNamee (guitar, vocals), and Pete Sears (keyboards).
There are many different sources and versions of this blues song, but the most famous are WC Handy’s “Hesitating Blues” in 1915; Charlie Poole’s “If the River Was Whiskey” in 1930; and Rev. Gary Davis "Hesitation Blues." Jelly Roll Morton performed "Hesitating Blues” on a piano . The song has been covered extensively by artists as diverse as Dave Van Ronk, Doc & Merle Watson, and Hot Tuna.
This concert was the for the Flying Other Brothers. We had set up and played for nine hours a day over five days in a studio converted to be a "band camp" with teachers from the . These teachers were Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, founders of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, and G. E. Smith, bandleader for Saturday Night Live and a veteran player in Bob Dylan's touring band, along with Pete Sears, who was a key member of Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, and many other bands, and backed Rod Stewart on his solo albums. After sitting in off and on for about a year after this show, Pete Sears joined our band and became its musical director. He did not hesitate... (then again, maybe he did...)
| "If
the river was whiskey, and I was a duck, you know I'd swim to the bottom, Lord, an' never come up" -- From "Hesitation Blues". |
Lyrics:
|
A nickel
is a nickel and a dime is a dime Well,
the eagle on the dollar says "in God we trust" If
the river was whiskey, and I was a duck, you know
|
Rocks
in the ocean, baby, fish in the sea Well,
the hesitatin' stalker's got them hesitatin' shoes
|
7. "Constellation Rag" (Roger McNamee). Performed by the Flying Other Brothers from the CD . Featuring Bill Bennett (bass), TBone Tony Bove (harmonica), Jack Casady (bass), Jorma Kaukonen (guitar), Bert Keely (guitar), Corinne Marcus (percussion), Larry Marcus (drums), Ann McNamee (percussion), Roger McNamee (guitar, vocals), and Pete Sears (keyboards).
The influence of Jelly Roll Morton and the Rev. Gary Davis are in evidence for this original song, written as a tribute to Hot Tuna (and featuring Jorma and Jack). Even more in evidence is the influence of ragtime music, a pop craze of the late 1890s. Ragtime borrowed its harmonic schemes and march-like tempos from Europe, but the syncopation introduced with ragtime was derived from rural fiddle and banjo music with African-American roots -- songs like the ragtime version of "Sally Goodin" and "On the Road to Texas".
The blues music of the South-East (mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas), known for its instrumental virtuosity and lighthearted style, was heavily influenced by both white and black music, including ragtime piano. Veterans of the work camps, brothels, and barrelhouses (beer joints), such as Sunnyland Slim, Memphis Slim, and Champion Jack Dupree, developed this piano playing style into what is known as "barrelhouse" piano, which further evolved into boogie-woogie, popularized at first by Clarence "Pine Top" Smith -- a style that owed more to ragtime than to the blues. Pete Sears demonstrates this piano style in this song.
One of the greatest ragtime-influenced South-East guitarists was Rev. Gary Davis, who recorded first in the 1930s and then enjoyed a revival in the early 1960s. Jorma Kaukonen learned the Rev.'s finger-picking style and incorporated many Rev. Davis tunes in the Hot Tuna repertoire.
8. "Wind and Rain" (Traditional, arranged by John Kilby Snow). Performed by the David Nelson Band at Mexicali Blues, Teaneck, NJ, April 30, 2004. Featuring David Nelson (guitar), Barry Sless (guitar), Billy Laymon (bass), Charlie Crane (drums), Mookie Siegel (keyboards).
You may recognize the melody from elsewhere -- Bob Dylan used this tune to create "Percy's Song" (versions of which appeared on Dylan's Biograph box set, on various bootlegs, and on the Genuine Bootleg Series, Vol. 3). Ballads like these are popular among folk purists. 's five volume work, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898), is considered by many as the "canon" of folk music. This ballad is related to the Child Ballad #10 “The Twa Sisters" and “Pretty Polly” and to the Irish-Celtic song "The Bonny Swans". The story is about a man that brutally murders his sweetheart and throws her body into a river to float away. She is plucked out of the water by a miller who then uses her body parts to fashion a magical violin which will only play one plaintive haunting tune.
This song is part of the repertoire of the Appalachian mountain singers. The isolated small towns, villages and hollows in the section running from Virginia through North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee is nearly unsurpassed as a repository of old-time music and ballads reaching back to the time of settlement. Born in 1905, John Kilby Snow was an outstanding autoharpist from Appalachia who was virtually unknown until discovered by Mike Seeger, who was responsible for bringing him to a wider audience in the 1960s.
David Nelson's version includes a second instrumental part that takes us back to the British Isles through a time portal located somewhere in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.
| "He
made a fiddle bow of her long yellow hair Crying oh the dreadful wind and rain" -- From "Wind and Rain". |
Lyrics (traditional version):
|
It
was early one morning in the month of May He
said to the lady "won't you marry me" Then
he knocked her down and he kicked her around He
hit her in the head with a battering ram He
threw her in the river to drown He
watched her as she floated down
|
She
floated on down to the miller's millstream The
miller fished her out with a long fishing pole He
made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones He
made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair The
only tune that fiddle would play, was
|
Lyrics (bluegrass and David Nelson version):
|
There
were two little sisters come a walkin down the stream Johnny
gave the youngest one a gay gold ring She
pushed her in the river to drown She
floated till she came to the miller's pond The
miller fished her out with his drifting hook He
laid her on the bank to dry
|
Way
down the road came a fiddler fair Way
down the road came a fiddler fair He
made a fiddle bow of her long yellow hair And
he made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones And
he made a little fiddle of her little breast bone And
the only tune that fiddle would play was
|
9. "Peggy-O" (Traditional). Performed by the David Nelson Band at Mexicali Blues, Teaneck, NJ, April 30, 2004. Featuring David Nelson (guitar), Barry Sless (pedal steel guitar), Billy Laymon (bass), Charlie Crane (drums), Mookie Siegel (keyboards).
According to David Nelson, "Peggy-O" is the first song he ever heard Jerry Garcia sing. Also known as "Fennario", the song popped up irregularly in concerts by the Grateful Dead.
"Pretty Peggy-O" a.k.a. "The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie" is an ancient folk song with roots that go back hundreds of years. It originated in Scotland as a story about a soldier passing through town, seducing a girl, and getting her pregnant. The soldier is ordered to leave and marches away. In some versions the girl follows him, though only for a little while, but in most versions she ends up abandoned, or she actually says no to the soldier. Either way, broken hearts are the result. When the song crossed the Atlantic to become "Fennario," versions started to include the "All your cities I will burn" line, which may refer to the Civil War (or War Between the States).
| "If
ever I return your cities I will burn Destroy all the ladies in the area-O" -- From "Peggy-O". |
Lyrics:
|
As
we rode out to Fennario, as we rode on to Fennario Will
you marry me pretty Peggy-O, will you marry me pretty Peggy-O I would
marry you sweet William-O, I would marry you sweet William-O What
would your mama think pretty Peggy-O,
|
If
ever I return pretty Peggy-O, if ever I return pretty Peggy-O Come
steppin' down the stairs pretty Peggy-O, Sweet
William he is dead pretty Peggy-O, sweet William he is dead pretty
Peggy-O, As
we rode out to Fennario, as we rode out to Fennario
|
10. "Man Of Constant Sorrow" (Traditional, arranged by Peter Rowan). Performed by the on the CD Tree on a Hill. Featuring (guitar, vocals), (guitar, mandolin, vocals), and (guitar, banjo, and vocals), with Kester Smith (percussion), Viktor Krauss (acoustic bass), and Richard Greene (fiddle).
This ballad, a variation of a popular the Appalachian lament, was first published in 1913 by a blind singer named Richard Burnett. During 1918, Cecil Sharp collected the song and published it as "In Old Virginny". Sarah Ogan Gunning's recomposition of the traditional "Man" into a more personal "Girl" took place about 1936.
Other female versions appear in the repertoire of various folk singers, including "A Maid of Constant Sorrow" by Judy Collins. The male version was covered by the Ralph Stanley and the Stanley Brothers, Mike Seeger, and Bob Dylan.
Some researchers believe the song can be traced back to an old hymn "I am a Pilgrim of Constant Sorrow". Bob Dylan’s version, on his first album released in 1962, is unique: Dylan’s switched the order of the stanzas, altered the melody, and changed the lyrics so that the focus of the song is the end of a relationship instead of an old man’s rumination about death.
This version, performed by the Rowans, uses the lyrics from the Soggy Bottom Boys (Ralph Stanley's) version, which appeared in the Grammy-winning soundtrack for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (by T-Bone Burnett, no relation to Richard Burnett as far as I know) released in 2000. While there are numerous other references to Homer's Odyssey in this movie, this song plays throughout the movie, and it may be no coincidence that Odysseus means "man who is in constant pain and sorrow".
| "Then
you may learn to love another, While I am sleeping in my grave" -- From "Man of Constant Sorrow" |
Lyrics (Bob Dylan's version):
|
I'm
a man of constant sorrow, Your
mother says I'm a stranger; |
Through
this open world I'm a-bound to ramble, I'm
going back to Colorado,
|
Lyrics (traditional version, also sung by the Soggy Bottom Boys on the movie soundtrack O Brother Where Art Thou):
|
I am
a man of constant sorrow, For
six long years I've been in trouble, It's
fare thee well my old lover.
|
You
can bury me in some deep valley, Maybe
your friends think I'm just a stranger |
11. "Fair And Tender Ladies" (Traditional). Performed by the on the CD Tree on a Hill. Featuring (guitar, vocals), (guitar, mandolin, vocals), and (guitar, banjo, and vocals), with Kester Smith (percussion), Viktor Krauss (acoustic bass), Cindy Cashdollar (Weissenborn guitar), and Richard Greene (fiddle).
Various arrangements exist for this Celtic ballad dating back to the 17th Century, many of which are claimed by songwriters such as A.P. Carter (patriarch of the Carter Family), Bill Hansen (the writer of "Goober Peas"), Clark Gene (no, not the Gene Clark of the Byrds), Jim Ed Brown, and Dave Guard (from the early Kingston Trio).
A variant with slightly different lyrics, "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme", was covered by Pentangle on its first album, and by June Tabor and others. -- the English folksong collector who gathered songs in the Appalachian mountains during the period 1916-1918, started his collection with this variant.
| "They're
like a star on a summer morning They first appear and then they're gone " -- From "Fair and Tender Ladies" referring to the men they court. |
Lyrics (traditional version):
|
Come
all ye fair and tender ladies. How
I remember our days of courtin'.
|
If
I had known before I courted I'll
find a place come tomorrow.
|
Lyrics (bluegrass and Rowan Brothers version):
|
Come
all ye fair and tender ladies They'll
tell to you some loving story I wish
I was on some tall mountain
|
I wish
I was a little sparrow Oh
love is handsome, love is charming
|
Lyrics of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (traditional version):
|
Come
all you fair and tender girls For
when your thyme it is past and gone |
For
woman is a branchy tree
|
12. "Gwendolyn" (Roger McNamee). Performed by the at May Daze, Strasburg, CO, 5/27/2005. Featuring Bill Bennett (bass), TBone Tony Bove (harmonica, vocals), Bert Keely (guitar), Ann McNamee (vocals, percussion), Roger McNamee (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Sanchez (drums), Pete Sears (keyboards), and Barry Sless (guitar).
We begin and end this podcast with ballads, which are stories in song. A ballad is typically a rhythmic saga of a past affair, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, almost inevitably catastrophic, which is related in the third person. Ballads are most often folk poetry in a musical format, passed along orally from generation to generation, set to conventional tunes and usually sung by a solo voice.
This is an original rock song that uses the ballad form and sounds similar to the ballads of the U.K. and Appalachia. It tells a story of a damsel in distress, forced to live out a lonely life serving the needs of her father. An entire catalog of ballads exist that document violence against women, usually by their lovers, or subservience of women to some cause. The reason is rarely given, though in this case the reasons are more obvious.
Lyrics:
[[ to be supplied ]]
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